Ethio Telecom signed a network expansion and modernisation agreement with Ericsson at MWC Barcelona, covering 1,500 mobile sites and adding 2.8 million new 4G capacity within the Ericsson-managed circle, as the operator pushes toward 85% population coverage with 87 million subscribers already on its books.
- The deal covers expansion, upgrade, 4G layering, and new capability deployment across 1,500 mobile sites managed by Ericsson. Legacy infrastructure will be replaced with current-generation hardware to boost both 4G throughput and 5G footprint.
- Within the Ericsson circle, the project will bring total 4G capacity to 4.1 million, extend LTE services to 157 additional towns, raising the connected town count to 276, and lift population coverage by 45 percentage points to reach 85% of the region.
- Rural connectivity is a stated priority: the agreement targets 75 underserved areas with tailored mobile solutions, and upgrades 502 existing 3G sites to 4G to reduce the coverage and usage gap.
- The deal supports Ethio Telecom’s three national digital platforms: telebirr, its mobile money and financial services system; ZemenGebeya, its digital marketplace; and Znexus, its enterprise connectivity platform.
- Ethio Telecom reported 87.1 million total subscribers as of December 2025, with 4G-enabled towns already at 1,069 and population coverage at 74%. Revenue for the first half of the 2025/26 fiscal year reached 85.02 billion ETB, up 37% year on year.
The Ericsson agreement is one part of a broader expansion push Ethio Telecom is running under its Next Horizon strategy. Huawei manages a separate network circle within the same infrastructure, and the operator has been adding sites at pace: 278 new mobile stations in the six months to December 2025 alone, including 130 in rural areas. The MWC signing is notable not just for its scale but for its timing: Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamru co-led the inauguration of Africa’s first dedicated pavilion at MWC Barcelona this week alongside the heads of the continent’s six largest telecoms groups, a signal of how seriously Ethiopia’s operator is positioning itself in the global connectivity conversation. Ethiopia’s population of 130 million and its relatively low current penetration rates make it one of the highest-potential telecom markets on the continent.
The Bigger Picture: Ethio Telecom is building infrastructure at a scale that most African operators cannot match, backed by a state mandate and a subscriber base that already rivals some of the continent’s most mature markets. The Ericsson deal pushes 4G into 157 more towns in one agreement. The rural focus matters too: connecting 75 underserved areas is not charity, it is market creation. Every new 4G site in a previously unconnected area is a potential telebirr user, a ZemenGebeya merchant, and a data revenue stream that did not exist before. At 87 million subscribers and growing, Ethio Telecom is not catching up with Africa’s digital economy. It is starting to set the pace.
Source: IT News Africa
